Doctor insights on:
Thyroid Radiation Side Effects

1

Assuming you mean:
Effects of radiotherapy when the mouth is being radiated? Dry mouth, then oropharyngeal mucositis, usually worse when chemotherapy is added. It is the reason i advocate a peg feeding tube before embarking on therapy. Swallowing functional impairment is the late effect.
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This is light of extremely short wavelengths typically produced either among the stars / in cosmic rays or by radioactive element decay. Gamma rays form the background of normal radiation in which we all live; it is substantially greater than the exposure we get from imaging scans or should get from exposures in the workplace.
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2

Quite varied dependi:
The most common side effects are mild skin burn which may cause some redness after 2-3 weeks of starting radiation treatment. There are similar effects on the mucus memberanes which can become quite sore and sometimes form ulcers. There are also some long term effects on the internal organs which your radiation oncologist will inform you about, if you ask about them and share your concerns.
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3

MRI doesn't:
Use ionizing radiation (used with ct scans and plain x-rays studies). It uses magnetic fields to make images and these have not been shown to harm the human body. That said, patients with certain kinds of pacemakers and other implanted devices can't be imaged with MRI because of the potential to disrupt the device or otherwise harm the patient.
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4

Radioactive Dyes or:
'tracers' are special dyes usually given through an IV as part of a nuclear medicine study. Tracers contain a small amount of a radioactive isotope that decays naturally over time and is eliminated in the urine and stool. Most nuclear med procedures are painless except for mild discomfort associated with the iv. Allergic reactions to tracers are rare. Inform the tech if you could be pregnant.
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6

Bowel & bladder :(:
Fatigue(alleviated by rest), transient bowel and bladder irritation it is a common side effect. One may urinate or desiccate more frequently and may have some irritation related symptoms that are short-lived. They are typically managed well with medications. Uncommon and rare side effects are significant dysuria, obstruction of the urinary flow. There are medications that help with this.
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7

Radiation toxicities:
The short term radiation effects depend on the location of treatment. Most common are diarrhea and skin erythema (pink sunburn type effect). Fatigue is also common. It depends on what organs are hit by the radiation therapy. Late effects are fibrosis (thickening of the tissue) and premature aging of the tissue. Permanent tanning of the skin can also occur. Ask your local radiation oncologist.
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8

Mostly go away:
Side effects will usually improve and go away. However minor liveable changes may be permanent. Often patients may say they are not 100% back to normal but close. It depends on many factors and what has been exposed to how much radiation.
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9

Side effects:
Yes ,it is still possible to have side effects from your Chemo/ radiation treatments 3 year down the line------mostly from the radiation treatments-----it depends upon the dosage and the number of treatments
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In :
In diagnostic nuclear medicine, our goal is to use the smallest amount of radioactive tracer that will give us the diagnosis. If you have ever been in a nuclear medicine department, you will be surprised at how long it takes to acquire an image. This is the trade off. Low tracer amounts yeild long imaging times. At some point, the patient can't hold still any longer.
Your second question is when does radioactivity become harmful. Any sort of ionizing radiation can cause an increased risk of cancer. Sunlight, cosmic rays, and radiation coming from our environment will all cause a small increase of cancer rates. Because of this, we are always striving to keep our doses as low as reasonably achievable (alara).
Please see :http://www.Ncsu.Edu/ehs/radiation/forms/alara.Pdf for more details.
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